394
NAVIGATION OF THE INLAND WATERS AND IMPRACTIC
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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pretty
November 11, 1899.
we willing believe that it is, the wish of the to stop to controvert this fullacy now, but Customs to treat all alike, if they had the ns he tells us by in erence that it is in such ABLE REGULATIONS.
power, but it is perhaps too much to expect a trade that steamers can now be employed from the individual official that he should under the Inland Waters concession we will Bar (Daily Press, 4th November.) The Transvaal question is one doubtless oppose himself to the known and expressed look into the question and see how far his of vast importance to the British Empire, but opinion of his chief, backed as that opinion statement is borne out by facts. A foreign- is by the support of the representative of er has the right to take goods into or to it by no means follows that others, also of the Power that first brought the concession bring goods or produce out of China either importance, should be allowed to lapse. forward and whose chief interest it is to see by paying taxation en route or commuting Our statesmen should be and must be equal it carried out. Our renders have only to
it for a lump sum, We presume Mr. BAX- to the effort of attending to both the Trans-refer back to the correspondence published IRONSIDE will concede that in doing so he vaal and the problem which they are called last month on this subject to understands the right to employ native boats to upon to face in the Far East. Popular ex-
our meaning. Sir ROBERT HART's deepatch carry the cargo in. This, then, is plainly a citement may for a time enable them to then printed was written with an aim and case where the foreigner used native boats disregard affairs out here with safety, and object, and that was to bluff" Mr. BAX. and hence should, according to Mr. BAX- popular ignorance of Chinese affairs may IRONSIDE, actunted thereto by a
IKONSIDE'S own showing, be allowed to also enable them to stave off by ambiguous shrewd guess that that gentleman would
use steam. That he cannot under existing phrases the explanation that will one day have a very superficial knowledge of the regulations do this, or at least, to be quite be demanded from them by the country as subject; and, as we then said, Mr. Bax correct, except under such conditions as to IRONSIDE was caught by the chaff. To make it certain that he will not do it, is most persons the notes of warning sounded patent to everyone familiar with the recent by such old and tried hands as MANSFIELD action of the Customs authorities. We will and Hose, that there were larger issues even go further and take the question on its at stake than appeared on the surface, lowest possible grounds and, adopting the would have been sufficient to convince them form of illustration use! by the Shipping that this was a matter which would need Companies in their memorandum, will sup careful investigation. Some such iden dues pose for the sake of argument fifty bales of appear to have struck MR. BAX-IRONSIDE firm into Canton. This is no question of Manchester goods imported by a foreign.
the carriage of native produce, but a plain bona fide importation of foreign goods which the importers wish to be sent inlund as follows: Ten bales are destined for Kum-
of
were
our
as he decided to refer the whole matter to
Lord SALISBURY, but as he at the sa ne time expressed it as his personal opinion that Sir ROBERT HART's views were the correct ones it behoves us to examine that opinion most carefully.
Mr. BAX-IRONSIDE has, like other people, a perfect right to a personal opinion, but when he expresses it in a public manner and un public matters we are compelled to look closely into the grounds on which that opinion is basell, to criticize those grounde, and possibly to confute them, instead of deliberately accepting a dictum which ren- ders valueless one of the most far reaching and important concessions ever wrung from We will take then his letter of the 25th of August printed in the correspond ence of the Chamber of Commerce. In this
chuk, a "port of call' on the West Rivòr, ten for Dosing, an inland place, ten for Wuchow, a treaty port, and the balance for some place in Yunuan. The firm in ques- tion can put the whole lot into one junk, over then by a transit pass or pay taxation encoute, whichever is must convenient, and land them at the places mentioned in their order as the junk makes its way up the West River. Can they do so with a steamer? The answer is distinctly and decidedly no. The Customs would decide as follows: The whole fifty bales having paid import duty at Canton, the ten destined for Kumchuk can either be sent there under transit pass he states: "I am personally of opinion that
or exemption certificate; they can be carried "the rul-ng of the 1.M. Customs as laid down
in an imer-treaty port steamer only, inland in Sir ROBERT HAKT's letter to me of May
water steaners not being allowed to touch "12th is a fair one, in view of the original at ports of call. The ten destined for Dos- "concession, which was to allow fore gning, situated between the treaty ports of
China.
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to the manner in which they have fulfilled their promises. But day by day a stronger light is being thrown on Far Eastern affairs and the public are beginning to realize that what they have hitherto been content to regard merely as a trick of the wily Celestial, not to be taken too seriously, is in reality one of deep and vital importance to the trade and the great working masses England, and with this knowledge will come enquiry. It will be well for those in whose hands the power is entrusted that the, should be in a position to stand and even to court such an enquiry. Mr. BRODRICK ex- pected great things from the opening of Nanning. Lord CURZON, when Luder Se- cratary for Foreign Affairs, informed us that British goods would be carried in British ships to every river-side town in China. Both of these utterances made by responsible officials occupying a prominent position in the Government, and yet we are still waiting to see the opening of Nanning and the Inland Waters of China take place. Whether when Nanning is opened the great things expected will take place it is not purpose to discuss. The point is that cer- tain things have been promised by the Chi- nese Government and up to date no attempt has been made to fulfil the promises, nor has any attempt been made by our Government to force the Chinese to fulfil them. Such evasions have been so frequent that one more or less need not be a cause for surprise, nor should we attach much importance to it were it not that in this case there is a dis- tinction deserving of the grave attention of those interested in the future development of this great Empire. The distinction is this. Hitherto our interests, and the best interests of the Chinese themselves, were op- posed by the native officials, but by the na tive officials only. Since, however, the Inland Waters concession was forced upon China the foreign staff in her employ have assumed a dangerously antagonistic attitude towards the commercial interests of England and with her of the world at large. This is far more apparent in the South than in the North, and the reason is plain. An anomal-
Is that the native carrying trade of ous state of things has been allowed to grow
the interior, or is it not? The thousands of up in the province of Kwangtung. Since tons of goods which are yearly carried up the introduction of steam on the waters of and down the Yangtze, which goods never that province a large steam traffic has leave China, were never intended to leave aprung into existance over which the Cus China, and are solely consumed by the Chi- toms pretend to keep some control, but which
nese themselves, are they the native carry- is in reality controlled by the provincia of ing trade of the interior? If so, then the fotals. When the Inland Waters were de- foreign steamers have already a share in it. clared to be open to foreign and nativesten mers
The fact is Mr. BAX-IRONGIDE'S expression the Customs found themselves in the posi- two distinct trades, the one what he calls is meaningless. He talks as if there were tion of having to assume direct control over the whole of this "traffic, and consequently the native carrying trade of the interior, ef coming into conflict with the provincial and the other some other kind; what that officials, whose squeezes would be threa-kind is he does not tell us. He also appar- tened, or to differentiate against the foreign ently labours under the delusion that there vessel. They chose the latter course, anil is some trade which is carried on by foreigu
note it with regret. It may be, and ers using native boats. It is not necessary
"
"merchants to use steam vessels for con- veyance of goods in the interior in places "where they have hitherto been allowed to
use native boats.
It appears to me "that you are anxious to obtain a share of "the native carrying trade of the interior, which trade was not formerly carried on by foreigners using native oats. If this can be done under the existing regulations "welf and good; these Regulations ought not, however, to be strained to attain this 'object." It would be interesting if Mr. BAX IRONSIDE had told us at the same time what his interpretation of the native carrying trade of the interior" is! For instance, what does he call the Wuhu to Canton rice
trade?
Samshui and Wuchow, can go to either Wu chow or Sanshui under exemption certificate and there take out a transit pass; from there they can go to Dosing in an inland water steamer, If the transit pass is taken out in! Canton they can't be shipped in any steamer at all Not in an inter-port vessel, because inter-port vessels are not allowed to carry transit pass goods from one treaty port to to another. Not in an inland steainer, be cause the steamer herself is not allowed to pass the next treaty port. The ten bales for Wuchow and the balance of twenty for Yunnan will have to go to Wuchow in an inter-treaty port steamer. Those for Yun- nan there obtain their transit pass and can go by an inland steamer to their destination. That is until Nanning is opened; after that the Samshui-Wuchow farce is enacted over again. Three steamers and two agents will be the least that will be required to get those goods to their destination, and this on
a trude which Mr. BAX-IRONSIDE tells the
Shipping Companies they can engage in, but must not strain the regulations to in- clude any other. The public in the Far in no uncertain voice as to which side is East have already expressed their opinion attempting to put a strained construction on the rules, and, unless we mistake, the time is fast coming when the public at home will express their opinion in a way which no statesman or Minister will care to either trifle with or resist.